Those Who Have Thrice Defied Him
by Aricia1
Summary: Lily and James have defied Voldemort 3 times, but exactly how did they do it? This is my first fan fic, so please review and tell me what you think. Finished.
1. Chapter 1

**Those Who Have Thrice Defied Him**

**Disclaimer:** I don't own anything.

**A/N: **This is my first fan fic, I hope you like it.

**Chapter 1**

Who knew how one small mistake could make Harry Potter eligible to be the person who the prophecy was about? One small mistake, made even before James and Lily knew each other, changed their entire lives. Without that accident, the Potters would be a normal, unknown, family of three, yet they were not. The mistake was made, and nothing could have prevented it, yet it still was counted as defiance. It was not a memorable mistake, not even for James, but it was still defiance, and the reason for how Harry's life is.

When James Potter was six, his family owned a large house which was on a large farm. The farm was full of old, unused buildings, which James would often play in. One of the buildings was in the middle of a group of trees which had grown so densely and thickly that unless you were told about the building (or you were an inquisitive young child with lots of time), it could not be found. It was a great place to hide from his parents when James had done something wrong, and James knew it. His parents had never found him here – he wondered if they even knew about it – and that was why he was heading there now.

There was a big party at his parent's house, and there would be lots of important people there, and his parents would want him to be on show constantly. This was both because they were proud of their 'little darling' and so he had no time to initiate any pranks, jokes or tricks, which he was well known for already. He did not want to be on show, and so he had decided to go to the building which his parents knew nothing of.

He went into the building, which had two rooms, and he was very surprised to hear talking from the room next door – he had never shown anyone here and he had never seen anyone here before. He didn't want them to know that he was here – if they were guests then they would ensure that he went back to the house, and then he would not be able to escape being on show. He edged closer, surprised but not scared, and listened to the conversation.

"Now?" asked the first voice.

"No! Of course not now. The timing has to be perfect for the Dark Lord's plan to work. We will only be transformed for one hour, and one hour only." The second voice sounded exasperated. "And it has to be exactly the right time when we attack, so the Order of the Phoenix is entirely focused on the Potter's house when the Dark Lord begins his own attack."

James didn't understand much of this – Order of the Phoenix? Dark Lord? and what plan?, but he had understood one thing: it was aimed at his house. Even as a child, James liked to do things on his own, without help, so instead of going to find someone to stop whatever was being discussed, he crept closer, to the door, so he could see as well as hear what was going on.

There were two men in the room, both of them in their early thirties, one tall, facing James, with short black hair and a moustache. He had thin lips and had a nasty glint in his eye. He seemed to be the leader of the two. This one who had spoken second. The other man was shorter and was facing away from James, although he got the impression that this man could not wait for something that was about to happen. He was also clutching something tightly.

The first man spoke again. "I still don't understand, Lestrange. Why don't we just go in as we are and kill everyone in sight, and not just attack particular people, under this disguise?" The man called Lestrange began to speak, but the first man carried on. "I know, I know, the Dark Lord's wishes. But it just doesn't make sense. The Minister for Magic – and most of the Ministry – is there, and we could just go and kill them all."

"Avery." Lestrange snapped. "You know that if we just went in and killed them all the Order of the Phoenix would split up, with only some at the Potter's, most still in position. If, however, we create a big diversion and the Order cannot tell who is attacking, then they will all come here, leaving the Dark Lord free. It's simple."

"Fine" Avery replied. "Just let me be the one to kill Potter. We were together at school, and I would enjoy it so much to see the look on his face when he finds out that I killed him."

"But he won't know." Lestrange looked sharply at the smaller man. "No one will know that we were the ones to attack! Okay?" Lestrange was nearly shouting by the end.

James understood enough of Avery's words to realise that these people were planning to kill his parents. He knew he should run back to the house, tell his parents, tell everyone that there were people planning to attack – to kill – them, but he was frozen to the spot. He couldn't move. James had never known a terror anything like this. He had never been anywhere near death before, and neither had his family.

He was terrified, but he was also angry. How could these people come to _his_ special place, and plan to kill _his_ parents? James' anger was bubbling up inside him, and he could only just stop himself from bursting into the room with these two fully grown people – wizards, James assumed – and attacking them with his own bare hands. Only his fear stopped him.

"Okay…" Lestrange was speaking again. "We only have one minute left. Have you got the potions? Yes?" (Avery showed what he was clutching and James saw two small vials of potion.) "Can you remember who you are going to be?" (Avery looked nervously at the ground and shook his head.) "You are going to be Herbert Edgecombe, of the Department of Magical Transportation – you are an under secretary of the person in charge of Apparating – okay?" (Avery nodded.) "I am Gilbert Mockridge, also an undersecretary. We are good friends from both work and Hogwarts. There are only twenty seconds left."

James realised suddenly that he was going to have to do something about this. Apart from anything else, they were about to walk out of the door and find him stood here. That really would not be good.

"Fifteen seconds." Avery passed one vial across to the other man.

James felt his anger and his fear inside him, and wished that he could do some magic, even if it was just to stop them drinking the potion. "Ten… Nine… Eight…" Timing was everything to this plan, they had said. "Seven… Six… Five…" If only James could stop them – or just slow them down – in someway. "Four… Three..." If only he could do magic. "Two." But that was impossible.

"One."

James' anger was at its highest, as was his wish to do magic, and his fear. But he couldn't stop anything happening. He could see Lestrange removing the bottle lid and lifting it to drink from. It happened so slowly. Lestrange was opening his mouth.

The vial cracked. The potion burst everywhere: all over Lestrange, over the floor, and over Avery. Avery spluttered, about to drink his vial, when it smashed as well. The potion was dispersing all over the floor, and though Lestrange was trying to get some of it off his robes and down his throat, it wouldn't come off. At the very least, Lestrange realised the small amount of potion he had got was not working, and he was soon shouting at Avery.

"I told you to bring more potion! You could have got more hair from the workers! But no!" Lestrange knew that the Dark Lord would not be pleased that they had failed, and though the Dark lord was not here, he was already, automatically, blaming Avery. "You just got one hair from each of them! You idiot!" Lestrange was fuming.

James realised that they had been saved. He though back to the moment. Had _he_ been the one to stop them? Had _he_ accidentally used _magic_? Was it possible? James didn't think that Lestrange had cracked the vial on purpose – and neither had Avery – yet they both cracked at just the wrong moment. Luck? – or magic? Would James ever know?

Before he had time to think about it more, James heard the men start moving towards the door. James fled.

Later, when he had started learning magic, and knew what it felt like to perform, he would realise that he had done magic, and he had been the one to stop the two men. He would always remember the way that when he got back to his house, his parents had not believed him, thinking that it was just one more joke that James had thought of, although this may have been because James refused to show them the building. After all, it was _his_ hiding place.

**A/N:** What do you think? Review please.


	2. Chapter 2

**Those Who Have Thrice Defied Him**

**A/N: **I'm using information (spells) from Deathly Hallows, but I don't think I've got any actual spoilers in here so it should be ok for all to read, but tell me in a review if you think that it has got spoilers and then I can warn people.

**Disclaimer:** I still don't own Harry Potter, and I've just realised I should probably say that the title is JK's own exact words.

**Chapter 2**

Being in the right place at the right time can affect your entire life, but being in the wrong place at the wrong time can affect your life, and other's lives, even more. It was yet another small decision that made Harry Potter eligible to be the person who the prophecy was about, but this time the decision was only the start of it. If James and Lily hadn't decided to meet here, maybe Neville would have been the only person who could have killed Lord Voldemort, but it did not happen that way: it happened this way.

The second defiance came twelve years later. Both Lily and James had left school, but they were not yet married. They had arranged to meet at seven thirty in a favourite haunt of theirs: a clearing in a wood near to James' house. As it happened, this was exactly where James had first defied Lord Voldemort – the building had long since fallen down.

James was looking forward to seeing his girlfriend, and Apparated to meet her slightly earlier than they had actually planned to meet. He Apparated slightly away from the spot, so he could surprise Lily if she was already there, but she wasn't, though there were other people there – James could hear muttering. He crept forward, as quietly as he could, wishing he had his Invisibility Cloak, but he hadn't suspected he'd need it to meet up with Lily.

As soon as he was in sight, he moved behind a tree to stop the people seeing him – he'd seen Death Eaters. Immediately wanting to warn Lily, he tried to Apparate out to her house, but he could not do it. As he tried, every Death Eater in the clearing looked towards James, and he realised that there must be an anti-disapparation jinx on the area, although you could still Apparate in, and also a charm to tell the Death Eaters if magic is being used – or trying to be used – around the area.

James didn't even have seconds to think: he just ran. Even as about thirty Death Eaters were chasing him and attacking with Unforgivable Curses, his most prominent thought was of Lily: he had to warn her. He knew how the Order of the Phoenix communicated, and although he'd never tried before, he knew he had to try now.

"_Expecto patronum!_" he shouted. Ignoring the laughs and jeers of the Death Eaters behind him, but still sprinting away, he said to his stag patronus: "Lily, Death Eaters here, warn Order." It raced off. After a second, in which he pointed his wand behind him and (hopefully) stunned someone, he created another patronus and sent it to the Order – as he'd never made one talk before he decided to needed to have back up.

Now that he had warned Lily, he thought about how he himself would get out of this situation. He quickly decided that running would be easiest, and the fastest way to run, for James, was to become Prongs. The Death Eaters, being surprised at his sudden transformation, paused their spells and this gave James time to transform before they began aiming their spells again. As the spells came, Prongs was galloping away, turning every few steps to try and lose some of the Death Eaters, although a few were keeping up with him still.

Prongs soon realised that, by turning every few steps, he had no idea which way to go to get out of the woods, which had expanded in the past twelve years. Slowing and looking around to try and recognise something, a Death Eater who had earlier lost Prongs' trail, but had now found it again, took the chance.

"_Crucio!_" Prongs looked round before agony overcame his entire body. Still a stag, his legs twitched horribly, and he fell to the floor, his eyes showing the torture.

"Here! Over here!" The Death Eater screamed into the woods. However, the Death Eater had taken her concentration off Prongs, and he was no longer in agony: his legs had stopped twitching and he could get up, but as the stag was getting up, another Death Eater ran into the clearing – unnoticed by Prongs, they were back at the original spot – and sent a spell that hit Prongs even as he was about to gallop.

Prongs collapsed to the floor

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Lily knew she would be late to meet James, but she wanted be absolutely perfect tonight – it had been an entire week since they had last seen each other. She thought she caught a glimpse of something silver as she looked in her mirror one last time, but when she turned there was nothing there so she decided she was imagining things.

She Apparated to the clearing, and the first thing she saw was a stag, lying on the floor – dead? As she recognised Prongs by the markings, she looked up and saw several Death Eaters pulling their wands out of their cloaks.

Lily, unlike James, could not run. Instead, thinking of her James, she pulled her wand out and started spelling as many Death Eaters as she possibly could. Any onlooker could see that she was an incredible witch, and her anger at what she assumed was James' death spurred her on almost to the point of her being indestructible, but the though that without James her life was meaningless was actually the thing that made her indestructible.

She was in a rage like nothing she'd ever experienced, and her magic reflected that. After stunning – silently, so the Death Eaters didn't know what spell was being used – three Death Eaters, she knocked a tree down with a brandish of her wand and, though not crushing any Death Eaters, she did block several spells and gave herself some time.

With time to think, Lily became slightly less careless. She put a shield charm over Prongs, and exploded a near by tree which, judging by the screams, hit several Death Eaters, and, although she had no idea that it had happened, also hit Voldemort. Whilst dodging more spells, Lily was saved.

Some of the Order of the Phoenix had arrived. Lily recognised Alastor Moody and the Longbottoms, but there were another five people who she did not recognise at all.

As they all began to attack the Death Eaters, although it must be said that Lily in her rage had been about as effective as the eight Order members were, Lily went to check Prongs, which was what she had been wanting to do since she had seen the body, removing her shield charm on the way.

Lily realised that she had a problem: where, exactly, is a stag's pulse? After trying to work it out, she heard someone screaming "_Stupefy_" and she realised that she could just try to wake him, to find out if… if…

"_Enervate,_" she whispered, pointing her wand at Prongs. He still lay still. "James… James?" Lily sobbed into the stag. "No… it can't…" Lily felt the body move from underneath her. "_No!_" she screamed, curling up on the ground. "No! You can't take him… _leave him here!_" She didn't know what to do… what could she do now that he had been taken from her?

"Lily?" A voice murmured from above her. She recognised the voice, but she didn't believe it. "Lily, look up." How could her mind be tricking her, believing that it was him standing there, talking to her? It wasn't fair. "Lily." The voice was more persistent now.

She opened her eyes and looked up. She couldn't believe it. He _was_ there, he was standing above her, talking to her. "James!" She hugged his legs tightly.

"Go!" A voice shouted to them. "Go quickly before they regroup. We've got them covered."

"How? There's an anti-disapparation jinx."

"There isn't anymore!" the voice replied, and Lily felt James pulling her through a hole, squishing her, before they appeared near to Lily's house.

Later, James would always taunt Lily for thinking that him transforming back into a human was someone dragging his body away from her, and she would laugh back, saying that she had been the one to survive the Death Eater's attacks without getting hurt at all. The argument would continue, from James being the one who got the Order which saved her in the end, to her being the one who had first shown him how to make a patronus. The arguments went very deep, until they could not be recognised as an argument about their second defiance of Voldemort.

**A/N: **James is James as a human and Prongs is James as a stag.

R&R, please


	3. Chapter 3

**Those Who Have Thrice Defied Him**

**Chapter 3**

Two choices can add up to just a single defiance, even if both are almost impossible to fight against, as the Potters found out the time that made them 'those who have thrice defied him'. This time, it wasn't an easy choice, or an accidental choice, that led to or became the defiance: it was an attack that was entirely made up of defying Lord Voldemort's wishes. Lily and James knew they could be hurt, but didn't realise how they would be hurt.

The third and final defiance came when Lily and James had been married for six months. They were, now, part of the Order of the Phoenix, and they and three others – Sirius and the Longbottoms – were on a mission for the Order when it came to the final defiance.

They were ambushed. The five of them were only meant to be listening to a conversation between three Death Eaters – five people were needed just in case, but that just in case wasn't expected to be needed. The intelligence must have been wrong. The Death Eaters were meant to meet in the alleyway in front of the Order members, not in the street behind. There were meant to be three Death Eaters. There were four Death Eaters, plus Lord Voldemort. It was not a good mistake to make.

The members all had Disillusionment charms on them, but the Death Eaters knew where they were going to be – was there a traitor in the Order? – so the first spells that came were in the right direction, and one hit Alice Longbottom – they heard her fall.

As had already been planned (just in case), Frank Longbottom sent a patronus message saying 'Help', whilst the other three used Shield Charms. Now that they had charms around themselves, the Disillusionment charms did not help – the Death Eaters could see exactly where they were anyway from the glow of spells. Frank was hit by a spell before he could put up his Shield Charm entirely, but as the patronus was still moving, they knew it was not an Avada Kedavra that hit him.

Sirius, Lily and James had never been in a real duel before, and a duel when you are down on numbers, and are fighting one of the greatest wizards in the world, is not the best type to start in.

Afterwards, Lily could never remember exactly what she had been doing, or if she hit any of the Death Eaters. She knew that she was mainly using Stunners, but everything was too much of a blur to actually know if she stunned any of them, or if any of their spells had got through her Shield charm.

James always said that he had stunned two of the Death Eaters, and had put a Full Body Bind on another, but Lily decided that it was more likely that he had hit maybe two of them, and either she or Sirius had hit the other.

Sirius was in a frenzy. He was attempting to jinx each and every one of the Death Eaters, including Voldemort, and he may have succeeded in jinxing two, but he forgot to keep part of his mind on the Shield charm, and it disintegrated as a purple jet of light hit it, and then hit him. No one was sure what the purple spell did, and as Sirius was still disillusioned, they could not tell whether he had fallen or not.

All that were left fighting were Lily and James, and they were against Voldemort. Lily and James were attacking him with as many spells as they could think of, and as quickly as was physically possible, but Voldemort simply flicked his wand, and the spells bounced off him, coming straight back at the Potters.

They dodged the spells fairly easily, but Voldemort flicked his wand again and their Shield charms were gone, as were the Disillusionment charms on all five of them. Frank and Alice were both down, and Sirius was down, bleeding heavily from his head, most likely having fainted from the blood loss.

Voldemort stood laughing at Lily and James, not attempting to spell them, just laughing at their futile attempts to attack him. The spells were still coming, but they were getting slower and more feeble – both Lily and James were running out of energy, and they could not keep up to this speed of spells for much longer, even when they had no spells coming back at them.

"Imperio!" A sudden spell caught James off guard, and a second later the same spell caught Lily.

Voldemort was still laughing as they received their orders.

_Attack him – he's your enemy._

Lily, in her mind, went through all the possible spells that she could use – the ones she had been taught, the ones she had read, the ones she had seen, trying to find the perfect one for an enemy who wasn't attacking her. She raised her wand – she had found the perfect spell. It would hurt James more than anything else could.

Wait – there was a new voice – James? James who? James Potter? But… but he means the world to you.

The first voice spoke again – he's your enemy, remember. Remember all those times he's hurt you, all those times you could have attacked him, all those times you would have attacked him if something hadn't been stopping you.

The second voice was retaliating – who stopped you? You stopped yourself attacking him. You can stop yourself attacking him again. You don't have to listen to that voice. That voice is the _real_ enemy. Stop it from making you attack your husband.

The first voice – husband? Who'd want him for a husband? He's an enemy.

Lily heard yet another voice – don't listen to them. Look at what you'd do, and look into your heart. Which voice is actually you, and which is the enemy? Just ask yourself that.

The first two voices both spoke at once – I'm your friend. I'm your heart, but Lily had stopped listening. She was looking at James, who was looking back at her, shocked. She knew which voice to follow.

_Attack her – she's your enemy._

James was having a similar battle within his head

That's Lily.

She's your enemy.

But – but you love her.

Love is blind

She loves you.

That's just what you want to think.

She'd never attack you.

Have you seen how she looks at you when she's angry?

Have you seen how she looks at you when she's happy?

She hates you.

Not any more. Not since-

Since fifth year? But you didn't change her mind.

She changed her own mind.

Do you really believe that? It was her argument with Severus.

It was her.

But you can't be sure, can you?

That's the past.

The past is important.

Not as important as the future.

Look at her. Will there be a future?

James looked at her with agony. He should attack her. But those eyes…

"No!"

Both shouts came at the same time, and as they threw the curse off, they dropped their wand arms to their sides.

Voldemort was about to curse them both, when spells came from the end of the street. The Order of the Phoenix had finally arrived to help. Spells had almost hit Voldemort when he Apparated away, leaving his Death Eaters for the Order to do anything with.

Later, James and Lily would barely ever mention their ordeal to each other, and when they did they would not admit how much of a struggle it was to overcome the curse, but they both knew that they had overcome the curse because of the other.

**A/N:** Please, please, please review. I really want to know exactly what people think – I want to know how bad I am at writing.


	4. Epilogue

**Epilogue**

Harry finished reading the parchments that he had found, and knew someone had described the three events that led to Lily and James having 'thrice defied Lord Voldemort.' Harry didn't know what to think. He had known for over a year now that his parents had defied Lord Voldemort three times, but he hadn't realised exactly how he had been defied, or how hard it would have been on his parents. Not for the first time in his life, he was extremely proud of all his parents had achieved.

Harry had never thought about it, but, as had been written, those small things had made his life how it was today. He could have been furious with his parents for them being the reason for which Harry's life was life this, but he wasn't. He knew that anyone could make a random decision and not realise just how much it would change someone else's life. As he was thinking, Harry's hand opened and he dropped the parchment without realising it, and he sank into a chair.

"Harry?"

Harry looked up to see Ron and Hermione looking concerned. They had been looking around for any possible clues about the horcruxes, and Harry had found the story. Hermione and Ron didn't know what he had just read, but they could see that Harry was lost in thought about something.

"Can you… what is that?" Hermione asked tentatively, gesturing to the parchment that was now on the floor.

"My… my parents. Their… their story, I guess." Harry replied slowly. "You can read it if you want."

Hermione picked up the parchment and she and Ron poured over it, Hermione every so often glancing up at Harry, and Ron exclaiming in surprise.

Harry remained lost in thought, realising that he had never really thought about the part of the prophecy set in the past, about his parents. He'd never asked Dumbledore, who could have almost certainly told him so much more than these pieces of parchment. Sirius could have, but then he'd died before Harry knew of the prophecy. Lupin might know more, but would he really? He hadn't been at any of the defiances, and could they have already been suspecting that there was a spy? Would he have been told? Harry knew that he would have to ask Lupin about it.

Not surprisingly, Hermione finished reading first, and came and put her arm around Harry. "Are you okay?" she asked carefully, although she already knew that he could not be very happy.

Harry didn't answer, but he leaned into her arm for comfort. Ron had finished reading, but he had no idea what to say so he just stood there, looking uncomfortable.

They stood like that for a long time before Harry stood up, took the parchment from Ron and rolled it up. He could keep his parent's deeds with him, along with the fake horcrux that he carried everywhere, to remind him that his parents could stand up to Lord Voldemort, and that if he wanted to be like them, then he would have to stand up to Lord Voldemort and fight, just as they had.

Now that he had proof that his parents had, he could as well.


End file.
